Mamata to meet PM Modi today at 4 pm

New Delhi: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday afternoon at his residence here at 4 pm.

This is Banerjee's first visit to the national Capital after her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) registered an emphatic victory over the BJP in the Assembly elections in the state earlier this year. Further, her meeting with the Prime Minister is significant amid her frosty relations with the Centre, especially after a bitter electoral battle. However, party sources claimed it as a courtesy meeting between the two after Mamata became the Chief Minister for the third consecutive time.

Banerjee reached Delhi on Monday evening. Reportedly, during her five-day visit, the TMC supremo is also likely to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Home minister Amit Shah.

Meanwhile, her meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar are scheduled for Wednesday. The former Union minister is also likely to meet other Opposition leaders at Banga Bhawan, possibly to discuss an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Moreover, a tweet by the official handle of the Congress party, the day before Banerjee's visit, has also set political circles abuzz. The TMC supremo has cornered the BJP-led NDA government on a range of issues, including inflation, increasing cost of diesel and petrol and cooking gas, Pegasus snooping charges and other issues related to tackling the ongoing pandemic crisis on various occasions. TMC's newly appointed general secretary Abhishek Banerjee along with party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy has accompanied her to Delhi.